This certainly aint no toy. I've got the vss30 and 100. The 100 has less sampling features, is monophonic but is more professional in its approach to sampling and can store up to 8 seconds of material. The 30 has some great editing features and is 4 note poly. Both are much better machines than the sk range. The 30 has several modulation controls and can add envelope contours to the samples and built in sounds. It is a proper little DX synthesizer in many respects and is tiny. Both machines are quite difficult to find, especially the 100 which has a drum machine built in instead if the sequencer and arpeggiator found on the 30. They, with the 200, are the best of the cheap toy samplers which came out in the late 80s. Buy if you can find.

Rating: 5 out of 5
posted Monday-Sep-27-2004 at 11:26

unemployed
writes:

this is no toy, it samples cleaner than the sk-1, plus the attack, fuzz, etc. alot of potential, sk-1 is still rich though.

Rating: 5 out of 5
posted Wednesday-Mar-17-2004 at 20:50

Keith
a hobbyist user
from USA
writes:

GREAT keyboard. I had an SK-1 years ago, and I liked it - but this keyboard is much better. The FM sounds can be altered and sound pretty good when you do so, pretty plan if you leave them as is though. The sampling is better than the SK-1, and you can manipulate it considerably with the various parameters. The arpeggio is useful, the memory could be too. The speaker is not that great, but plug it into an amp, through a sterio chorus, and the sounds get HUGE! Lots of fun to play around with amd might be great for some serious use. I just wish it would save your patches when turned off - I leave a healthy set of batteries in mine even when I'm using the wall wart, so it would save them if it had that feature.

Rating: 5 out of 5
posted Saturday-Aug-16-2003 at 00:02

Zen
writes:

The vss30 is a great little board though the 200 is better. Both are great fun and dead easy to play. Stuff like this belongs in the 80s. If Yamaha brought it out again it would be too good and too clinical. They would miss the point. Probably would make it 16bit and give it 4hrs of sampling time!

Rating: 4 out of 5
posted Sunday-Feb-02-2003 at 13:19

ckid
a part-time user
from germany
writes:

hum, i own a sk-1, a sk-5 and also a yamaha vss-200 but this one is the coolest... i love the sampleability and also love to use the tweaking possibilities you have on the presets... nice plinkerish stuff and strange layers you can get... i love it a lot...